Después de probarlo a principios de este año, las dos compañías anunciaron los primeros usuarios en probar la tecnología de contabilidad distribuida, lo que les permitió rastrear envíos casi en tiempo real.
After launching a proof of concept earlier this year, IBM and Maersk have unveiled TradeLens, the production version of an electronic ledger for tracking global shipments; the companies say they have 94 participants piloting the system, including more than 20 port and terminal operators.
The jointly developed electronic shipping ledger records details of cargo shipments as they leave their origin, arrive in ports, are shipped overseas and eventually received.
During the transportation process, all of the involved parties in the supply chain can view tracking information such as shipment arrival times and documents such as customs releases, commercial invoices and bills of lading in near real time via the permissioned blockchain ledger.
More than 160 million such shipping events have been captured on the platform, according to IBM and Maersk. «This data is growing at a rate of close to one million events per day,» the companies said.
Traditionally, the international shipping industry’s information systems have used paper legal documents, and electronic data was transmitted via electronic data interchange (EDI) – a 60-year-old technology that doesn’t represent real-time data information.
Shipping participants have also shared documents via email, fax and courier.
When information is entered or scanned in manually, TradeLens can track critical data about every shipment in a supply chain, and it offers an immutable record among all parties involved, the companies said.
Some shipping manifests can also be moved via an API to the TradeLens platform, so that manufacturers and others in the supply chain have more timely information and improved visibility to the process.
Along with freight forwarders, transportation companies and logistics firms, more than 20 port and terminal operators are using or have agreed to pilot TradeLens, including PSA Singapore, International Container Terminal Services Inc., Patrick Terminals and Modern Terminals Ltd. in Hong Kong. Customs authorities in the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Australia and Peru are also participating.
Fuente: https://www.computerworld.com